The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that the referenced prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in Australia.
The art of skateboard design and manufacture is dominated by limitations on materials, techniques for their employment, and cost. Despite being superficially simple, skateboard decks need to be empirically engineered to control many variables, including overall shape, rails, torsional stiffness, controlled bend of the deck between the trucks, and weight. The considerations differ for boards styles as long boards or freeride longboards (usually about 36″ (91 cm)) decks), as opposed to “standard” and long standard decks (about 22″ to 27″ (56-69 cm)).
Traditional deck construction used a laminated wood (plywood) blank shape, engineered with truck mounts fore and aft. Rails may be added for stiffness and edge protection during stunts and tricks. Nose and tail protectors may be added.
Australian Patent Publication AU 2012200377 B2 disclosed a new principal of construction using injection moulded engineering thermoplastics such as polypropylene to produce advanced standard and long-standard decks. A skateboard deck is provided having a unitary, plastic body having a bottom wall, a pair of raised truck attachment points spaced on the bottom wall, a pair of spaced stiffening ribs formed integrally with the body and extending between the front and rear truck mounting platforms and defining a cavity, and a closed loop, integral strengthening member formed in the deck and extending over the cavity.
The materials and methods of construction of the disclosed decks are not adaptable to longboard decks due to excess bending and torsional flex.
Composite longboard at 36″ and greater in length utilizes techniques most commonly used in surfboard and sailboat manufacturing, such as using triaxial fiberglass cloth, high-density foam and epoxy resin. Foam may be multiblocked for shaping, such as being formed into hexagonal shapes. The form may then be encased in reinforcing fibre and resin or prepregs, and cured by appropriate technique. Typically the reinforcing may be triaxial fiberglass and the resin may be epoxy resin. The foam core may be supplemented by durable and resilient plastic rails placed in the nose and tail of the board to provide integrated protection from impact abuse. The boards are expensive to make. At the same time, variability can occur in the layup.